Huawei center

HUAWEI Technologies said it had received planning permission for a 1 billion pound (US$1.2 billion) research and development facility in England.

The new center will employee around 400 people and focus on producing optical equipment used in fiber-optic communication systems, Huawei said in a statement. Huawei vice president Victor Zhang said the technology developed at the new center was separate from that targeted by the U.S. restrictions, and it was “simply wrong” to suggest its announcement was timed to influence Britain’s decision. Huawei began working on the project in 2017, he said, and acquired the development site near Cambridge, around 70 km north of London, in 2018..

Oil imports

CHINA’S crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia nearly doubled in May from a year earlier to all-time high as refineries snapped up cheap fuel, while the kingdom retained its position as the top supplier to the world’s biggest oil buyer.

Arrivals from Saudi last month reached 9.165 million tons, or 2.16 million barrels per day (bpd), up about 95 percent from 1.11 million bpd in May 2019 and up 71 percent from 1.26 million bpd in April, data from the General Administration of Customs showed.

Wearable devices

CHINA’S shipment of wearable devices shrank in the first quarter of the year, an industry report showed.

Makers of wearable devices in the country shipped 17.62 million units in the first quarter, down 11.3 percent year on year, according to global market intelligence firm International Data Corp. Shipment of basic wearables, which do not support third-party apps, fell 5.5 percent from last year, while shipment of smart ones dropped 33.3 percent during the period.